This Tuesday, November 19, after three days of marathon trial before the Dordogne Assize Court, the Perigord sexologist Lionel Agullo, who was on the run at the time of his first judgment in November 2021, was found guilty of having violated a former patient during massage sessions under hypnosis between March and July 2027 in Périgueux. He was sentenced to twelve years of criminal imprisonment with a two-thirds security sentence and seven years of socio-judicial supervision. He is prohibited from appearing in Périgueux, from coming into contact with the victim, from working with minors or from producing a work based on the facts.
Was she disarmed by the accused's fanciful remarks? Confused by the defense's repeated attacks on the procedure? The Assize Court went beyond the requisitions of the attorney general, Jacques-Édouard Andrault.
More severe requisitions
Earlier in the day, the representative of the company's interests had requested ten years of imprisonment, considering that the six-year prison sentence handed down in November 2021 was “unrelated to both the seriousness of the facts and the personality by Lionel Agullo.
For him, demonstration was made during the three days of trial that the victim underwent, under the cover of therapeutic care, digital penetrations by surprise. “The complainant was never informed by the therapist of possible digital penetrations at the sexual level,” explained Jacques-Édouard Andrault, before reporting the “moral constraint” exercised by the sexologist on his patient, including “the deep distress” then reinforced dependence on care. “Lionel Agullo used his pseudoscience to manipulate a patient whom he knew had been raped four years previously,” continued the public prosecutor.
The lawyer disputes
“The surprise? By returning to his therapist twelve times? We are not in for a surprise as it is defined in the Penal Code,” quipped Mr.e Ponsot. Quick to attack the procedure, the black dress more rarely mentioned the merits, except to ask to what extent her client was not the scapegoat of the victim, who never obtained justice for her first rape . “The weight of the proceedings opened for rape against a high school friend could have weighed on the victim's relationship with her therapist,” he said.
When the verdict was announced, Me Ponsot said the verdict was “motivated by hatred.” “The court calculated the seriousness of the facts and the dangerousness of Lionel Agullo. I think he paid for his flight and his changing behavior since the start,” the civil party’s lawyer, Ms.e Nadège Trion. “It’s a victory because it allows us to establish the fact that we are in the truth, even if he is in his own truth which is disastrous for others,” added the complainant. The accused has ten days to appeal. “I expect a third trial,” the victim already feared after the verdict.
